Optically active carboxylic acid amides and optically active carboxylic acids, in particular, optically active nipecotamide, and optically active nipecotic acid are useful as synthetic materials or synthetic intermediates of agricultural chemicals, medicaments and the like. As is known in the conventional art, racemic nipecotamide is hydrolyzed through action of an amidase derived from Pseudomonas sp. MCI3434 strain (Patent Document 1, Non-Patent Document 1). However, the stereoselectivity and productivity of the amidase are unknown.    Patent Document 1: JP-A 2004-105152    Non-Patent Document 1: Eur. J. Biochem., 2004, vol. 271, p. 1580